The IECS Company, specializing in the manufacture, assembly, and maintenance of quarry and sand pits equipments has chosen Nord gear motors to power the new aggregates production unit of the Pradier Group. The quality of service, especially in terms of reactivity and the performance of IE2 motors have made the difference. The French Group Pradier produces 400,000 tons of concrete blocks and interjoists per year, which are intended for building material suppliers. Pradier Carrières, founded in 2010, has thus opened its first operating site in 2011 in Mondragon in the south of France. The quarry consists of a deposit of about 375 acres and 20 million tons of ore, with a mining permit for 450,000 tons per year over 30 years. 350,000 tons are then transported by road and 100,000 tons by river. The processing plant is located near the deposit (1 km by conveyor) and has a production capacity of 400 tons per hour.

The IECS Company completed the whole installation which provides ore crushing, screening, and conveying of aggregates to their shipping points. "We buy Nord Drivesystems helical bevel gear motors regularly," says Cachot, IECS manager. In total, there are 37 Nord Drivesystems helical bevel gear motors, SK9042.1 & SK9072.1 models powered by IEC B5/IE2 motors used in the Pradier site. "We have a very good relationship with Nord. It is a human-sized company, they are very reactive. When we commissioned the facility the motor model had to be changed for two units which ratings were not high enough. We called Nord and 36 hours later it was changed. The Nord sales manager is always available to help on the project, he reacts very quickly. The company stands out by its very high reactivity. A new emergency assembly and shipping service is offered to all customers since the spring of 2011. Whether it's a motor or a gear motor, with or without variable frequency drive, painted or not, the company undertakes, provided the components are available, to assemble and ship on the same day anywhere in France, and this for all orders placed before 4:30 pm. To achieve this fast response time, the processes, inventory levels and logistics were thoroughly reviewed in 2011. The same service has been set up for spare parts."

Energy consumption was obviously an important aspect of the facility. Again, Nord stood out by offering IE2 motors. To comply with new and more demanding standards, in terms of energy efficiency, Nord has made many improvements to its IE2 motors. For example, superior materials are used in the stator, the quality of the plates is better, more copper was used and the windings have been optimized. These efficient motors are naturally beneficial to users. In addition to better performance, the motors run cooler and have a longer operating life. These improvements also result in greater power reserve, which opens up new possibilities in terms of drive systems design.